The End of Oak Street Trailer Review: I have seen the trailer for The End of Oak Street in Hindi and I am really excited about the direction that this film is taking. The film is expected to hit the screens on August 14 and will be released in the Hindi language, a clear indication of the faith that is built around the film. The first thing that struck me about it is that it’s from director David Robert Mitchell, who is known for his horror movie It Follows. I was captivated by his reputation as a weirdo storyteller, so I was even more interested in the strange and ambitious concept he presented in the trailer.
The narrative is about the peaceful life of one family on Oak Street. One day they see a flash of light that they can’t explain, and their everyday lives are thrown into a whirl. Things start to look normal again, but the following day comes a number of shocking revelations. No water, no electricity and no Wi-Fi. There doesn’t seem to be anything working. At first, it looks like a regular failure of the infrastructure, but the trailer soon exposes that something a lot more extraordinary has occurred. The dinosaurs start to wander through the neighbourhood and gigantic creatures roam the streets in deadly pursuit. The trailer from there on is an entrancing mix of mystery, science fiction, and survival drama.
The most interesting thing to me is the main enigma. The residents gradually realise that it is not the entire world that has changed. Rather, it seems that just their street and immediate neighbourhood have been moved. The trailer hints at two possibilities. They might have taken some magical way back to a prehistoric past when the dinosaurs roamed the earth or they could have been sent to another universe altogether. It’s unknown what caused all of this strange stuff and that mystery is what makes the trailer so interesting. It stimulates interest without giving too much away.
I also liked how the film is a mix of two or more genres. It reads like a science fiction adventure, a survival horror story, a family drama, and even a comedy at times. Getting that two-part performance right can be tricky, but the trailer does it surprisingly well. The various components don’t seem to be too much, but rather seem to complement each other and make a grand entertainment package.
I was very impressed with the visual representation of the dinosaurs. When budgets are tight, it can be difficult to make prehistoric creatures feel believable and/or exciting in most films. In this instance, they’re cute and they’re quite convincing. I didn’t ever feel the corners were cut on the trailer. The world feels ‘real’ in terms of scale and the production values are good throughout.
The cast too, give me hope. The fact that there are major actors in the cast of the film makes it even more worthwhile and makes the filmmakers look like they are trying to make something more than just a creature feature. But with the addition of David Robert Mitchell, the film has a number of reasons on its side.
Sometimes, however, trailers can hype a movie to expectations that are never fully met and sometimes, the actual movie fails to meet expectations. That said, on the basis of what I have seen, The End of Oak Street seems to be an imaginative, fun and altogether new kind of science fiction film. It’s a whole package of dinosaurs, mystery, family dynamics, survival stakes and a fascinating time-travel or alternate universe puzzle. As a trailer, it makes me hopeful for finding out what really went on in Oak Street, and maybe how those people in the street can get back home.
